Abstract

This article deals with the construction of a European border area and the process of its integration as a corporation within broader political entities. The analytical framework is Gipuzkoa, a Basque province that was part of the Crown of Castile, from the late 14th to the 17th century. The study focuses on the interaction among different participants, powers, and institutions that fought over spatial dominance and the definition of a specific territorial republican model. The focus of analysis concentrates on some agents that have been neglected by historiography, the inhabitants of rural communities, and their capacity for political action regarding the appropriation, control, and definition of a territorial state with a single identity, rather